Daily Minute | The latest Lincoln-area news for March 6

Good morning, Lincoln. Here's what you need to know today.

Mead residents raise concerns 

Last week, Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker attended a meeting where an official with the Environmental Protection Agency met with concerned residents who live near Mead, home to a former ethanol plant that used pesticide-coated seeds to make ethanol.

Those residents, who are worried about the environmental effects of the plant, hoped the federal government might consider making the now closed AltEn plant a Superfund site.

But, the EPA official said in the case of AltEn, the law that creates Superfund sites would not apply because the pesticides found in high concentrations are not deemed hazardous, which limits the agency’s authority to deal with them.

The official told area residents the EPA believes the seed companies that sent AltEn their unused products are ultimately responsible for the cleanup, not the government. And he said the EPA is 100% in support of the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy overseeing the voluntary cleanup initiated by the companies that sent their seeds to the plant.

Some residents, however, said they do not share the EPA’s confidence in the state's approach to the cleanup.

Nebraska's train derailments 

On Feb. 21, a Union Pacific train derailed in Gothenburg, spilling 31 cars carrying tons of coal in a messy tangle that crews are still working to clean up.

The derailment, although more severe than most, is not out of the ordinary in Nebraska. Since 2000, a train has derailed in the state roughly once every seven days, according to a Journal Star analysis of federal railroad safety data.

Over that span, Nebraska has had the fifth most derailments in the country.

According to the most recent available data, there were 42 derailments in Nebraska from January 2022 to November 2022. Since 2000, there have been 1,473 derailments in the state. But only 8% of those caused damage to train cars.

Putting down the fork

And, after 25 years of reviewing restaurants for the Journal Star, Jeff Koreblik is stepping down.

Korbelik said he enjoyed the job and could have kept going but wants to pursue other interests. Plus, he said it’s time for a new voice or voices, especially since he believes Lincoln is on the verge of another restaurant surge like it saw after Pinnacle Bank Arena was built.

Read about how Korbelik became a restaurant critic, what he learned along the way and some of his memorable reviews.

That’s it for Monday, March 6. Stay in the know with Lincoln’s longest-standing news source at JournalStar.com. We’ll see you on Tuesday.